Earlier this month, we introduced you to Mastodon, just in case you were getting shitty with Twitter: The Elon Musk Era. Maston since took off, but just like Tumblr, Reddit, Cohost and CounterSocial, it has its limitations. Enter Hive Social, the next platform given the blessing (or curse) of being a Twitter alternative.
Hive Social posted on its Twitter (the irony is noted) that as of November 22, it had reached 900,000 users. Super quickly, that jumped to 1,000,000. This is far exceeding its daily onboarding limit.
Use Google or Apple Sign In to continue signing up! 🚨🐝🫶 We’re working on fixing the quota for the email verifications and we’ll announce when it’s done!🌈💛
FYI the email verifications quota was set to 100,000 a day. Meaning you all blew us past that.😉 https://t.co/Xo4DzsMtio
— Hive (@TheHIVE_Social) November 21, 2022
So what is Hive Social, and is it a Twitter killer?
What is Hive Social?
On its website, Hive Social says: Two college students with a new approach to social media. Sounds very Facebook-y. The platform was developed in 2019 by 22-year-old CEO Kassandra Pop.
Hive is a social media platform that wants to create a better experience for its users through a chronological feed (literally, Zuckerberg should just do this and make everyone in the world ever happy). It combines other features from other platforms like Instagram, Twitter and even MySpace, such as photos, videos, status updates, it has a music section and you can also monetise posts. In addition to the chronological feed, which is enough to sell me on it, Hive Social also lets users post links. This is actually because it does away with personalised algorithms, which only TikTok seems to have actually nailed.
It’s more like an Instagram-Twitter hybrid, if we had to simplify it. But nudity is a no-no.
“We understand that you may want to share nude images that are inherently artistic or creative in essence, however, we do not allow nudity on Hive. This includes photos, videos, and digitally-created content that show sexual intercourse, genitals, and close-ups of fully-nude buttocks. Nudity in photos of paintings and sculptures is fine, however,” Hive writes.
An app not trying to be everything in one app is sort of refreshing.
Despite no nudity, you have to be 17 years old to get a Hive account.
Is Hive Social a Twitter alternative?
In so far as it’s a social media app to doomscroll instead of Twitter, yes.
Hive uses the same followers model Twitter does, and it also looks and feels similar from a profile point of view. Navigation is also somewhat of a shoutout to the Twitter of yesteryear. I’ve been having severe Tumblr flashbacks, too.
The search feature is similar to Reddit, less Reels you don’t care about than on Instagram, at least.
After using the app for a mere hour before writing this up, I can see the appeal. Of course, I don’t have followers and don’t follow anyone at this stage, my feed is just me mimicking a boomer, but just like with any new social media app, once you start accumulating followers and followees, the benefit of the app starts to be seen.
Why are people signing up?
Because Elon Musk’s Twitter is a different Twitter to the one we’ve grown to love (or hate) over the last few years. Musk isn’t helping the situation, either.
Hope all judgy hall monitors stay on other platforms – please, I’m begging u
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 21, 2022
How does Hive Social respond?
1,000,000 Besties and the number keeps climbing! 🫶🌈🔥Thank you to everyone who has followed us, joined, shared their Hive posts and profiles, invested in our WeFunder, and overall just given us such an incredible amount of support! 🥹🐝💛 pic.twitter.com/3IOliTf647
— Hive (@TheHIVE_Social) November 21, 2022
Comments